The power of the word: A friend in Point Reyes Station called me Friday afternoon to ask if I’d heard the word going ’round town that there’d be striptease at the Old Western Saloon that night

Of course, it would be comic, and the women wouldn’t really take all their clothes off, he said, but it might be fun to see.

He was right in all respects. When I went downtown about 5 p.m. to check my mailbox, townspeople were talking about the upcoming act, and when the two of us went down to the Old Western around 9 p.m., the place was packed. There were lots of men, of course, but lots of women too.

The all-woman rock band Pink Sabbath with lead singer/guitarist Adrienne Pfieffer was playing, and not long after we arrived the “strippers” in clown costumes pranced onto the small dance floor in front of the band.

The two ecdystiasts, as predicted, did a comic bump-and-grind routine but kept a lot of epidermis hidden. The crowd in the Western loved it all the same. In the style of vaudeville, a male clown periodically wandered up to the women as they peeled, ogling them but getting a brushoff.

Because the act was so innocent, no one minded a couple of us photographing it. The photography, however, reminded me of the one time I was able to photograph an actual strip show in progress.

The occasion was a gala opening at the O’Farrell Theater for a comic sex film, The Grafenberg Spot. Former West Marin resident John Grissim wrote the screenplay, so I was on the guest list when the press was invited. During the event, which is described in Posting 12, the dancers and strippers performed as usual on various stages within the theater, and I, along with the rest of the press, was able to photograph their acts.

Of all the shots I took, however, the one I like best was not of someone performing but of three high-fashion women in the audience because of their expressions. I also like the position of the woman at left because she reminds me of Aunt Fritzi whose head leaning into the room, but never a depiction of her full body, was a mainstay of the old Nancy comic strip. I’ve dubbed the shot: Four Women at a Strip Show.

Striptease, of course, has been around in one form or another for millennia. My father, who came from a very proper Methodist family in Salina, Kansas, once admitted to me that in his youth almost a century ago now, he had seen a striptease act. As it happened, the circus came to town and hired local boys to pass out promotional fliers.

My dad and his cousin were distributing circus come-ons when his grandfather came upon them and took a look at the fliers. Seeing that they were promotions for a female “artiste,” grandfather took the two boys to see the show, figuring it was high time they learned a little more about life. It was the only time, as far as I know, that my father ever saw any striptease, and Dad never told me what thought of it.

My only clue to his possible reaction is a poem titled Adults Only, which was written by the respected American poet William Stafford (1914-1993):

“Animals own a fur world./ People own worlds that are variously, pleasingly bare./ And the way these worlds are once arrived for us kids with a jolt/ That night when the wild woman danced/ In the giant cage we found we were all in/ At the state fair.

“Better women exist, no doubt, than that one,/ And occasions more edifying, too, I suppose./ But we have to witness for ourselves what comes for us,/ Nor be distracted by barkers of irrelevant ware;/ And a pretty good world, I say, arrived that night/ When that woman came farming right out of her clothes, by God/ At the state fair.”

You’ve been a wonderful audience, and have a safe drive home!

Back in 2004 when West Marin Citizen editor Jim Kravets was news editor of The Point Reyes Light, he wrote in an editorial that The Light was “reluctantly” endorsing Carole Migden for the State Senate. “Voters,” he wrote, “like their legislators to be leaders, have good judgment, and act decisively… Carole Migden does all of this.”

However, Jim also noted, “voters would like their state senators to be approachable, receptive, or at least slow down as they drive past constituents. Carole Migden does none of the above.” This second observation has now turned out to be remarkably prescient.

Trinka Marris of Inverness Park (standing beside the state senator) heads the Save the White Deer campaign, and she invited many of us who also oppose the Point Reyes National Seashore’s slaughter of fallow and axis deer to come to her house last Saturday for a party to meet Migden.

Unfortunately, the majority of guests had little chance to spend much time discussing their concerns with Migden. Instead they mostly had to content themselves with listening to a loud, brash, sometimes-witty, and sometimes-abrasive performance by their state senator.

Addressing the party, State Senator Migden, who is openly lesbian, told the guests right off that she is also Jewish, from New York, and represents, along with Marin, “east San Francisco, the part you enjoy.” That part, she added, includes the Mission District and the Embarcadero but “not the Avenues” (the Sunset and Richmond districts). Coming from a legislator, her bluntness seemed both refreshing and gratuitous.

The local press was represented at the party by The Point Reyes Light, The West Marin Citizen, and this blog. Midgen playfully posed for pictures riding a rocking horse and later used a West Marin Citizen photo of this on her website — but said she didn’t want the stuff she was saying quoted in the press.

While she clearly didn’t mind being photographed, Migden (at left) said news articles too often make her look bad by getting her comments wrong or presenting them out of context. Whether press reports on Migden have been right or wrong, it is perfectly understandable why the state senator has been uncomfortable with them.

One reason The Light three years ago endorsed Migden only “reluctantly” was her behavior in October 2004 during a candidates’ debate with Republican opponent Andrew Felder. Sponsoring the debate was the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce. As San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross wrote at the time:

“It started when Migden’s staff asked that the debate schedule be reshuffled because she had to leave early. Organizers did so, only to have Migden show up late. When she finally did arrive, Migden stayed outside in the hall and sent word that she wouldn’t join the proceedings until Felder was done.

“Upon taking the stage, the ever-blunt Migden informed moderator Dick Spotswood that she had come a long way, so forget about the time limit on answers. The capper came at the end when she chose to ignore the extended hand of her opponent. Not once, but twice.

“The audience was just aghast,” said chamber president and CEO Elissa Gambastiani. “You could have heard a pin drop,” said Marin Association of Realtors vice president Edward Segal, a fellow Democrat and former press secretary for the notoriously gruff John Burton.

“‘Was she this arrogant in San Francisco?’ Gambastiani asked. To be honest, yes. Migden has long been known as hell on high heels. The New York native cut her teeth in the-rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco politics, then spent eight years as one of the most-aggressive liberal legislators in the state.”

As a motorist, Migden can likewise be hell on wheels. This past Aug. 10, the state senator pled no contest to reckless driving charges, stemming from a three-vehicle collision on Interstate 80 in Fairfield last May. The accident sent a Vallejo motorist’s three-year-old daughter to the hospital.

The day after Migden was fined $710 and put on two years’ probation, CBS 5 and the Associated Press reported that “State Senator Carole Migden [had] caused a panic among fellow drivers last May when she drove out of control in her state-issued SUV for 30 miles on Interstate 80, according to [just-then-released] 911 tapes.

“A series of callers between Berkeley and Fairfield, where Migden’s wild ride finally ended… described her as coming perilously close to hitting other vehicles, weaving back and forth across multiple lanes of traffic, and careening repeatedly off the center median barrier.

“One caller described motorists putting on their vehicles’ hazard lights in an apparent attempt to warn others away from Migden’s Toyota Highlander hybrid. Another caller feared she was drunk.” One woman thinking Migden’s car was being driven by a man, frantically told a 911 dispatcher, “He’s like, he’s been weaving in and out of lanes. He almost hit the back of our car, and then he sped up and almost hit another car. He’s driving real fast right now and, oh, my God, he’s about to hit another car.”

Another caller to 911 told the dispatcher, “I’ve witnessed her hit the center divide already once. She’s been crossing three lanes at a time, wandering back and forth. She’s been on the phone, reading a book. She’s doing about 80. She’s really scary, watch out!” In all, the 911 dispatcher in 27 minutes received nine such calls from five motorists.

After the collision, Migden told CBS 5 she had been diagnosed with leukemia 10 years ago and that her daily medication may have been to blame for her bad driving. I personally was certainly sorry to learn about the state senator’s leukemia, but would her medicine really cause her to drive 80 mph in traffic while intermittently reading and talking on the phone? After all, Migden was a leader of the movement in the Legislature to outlaw the use of cell phones while driving. How easily does one forget?

While Migden didn’t want her comments to some members of the public on Saturday to be reported to other members of the public later, I will reveal that when she addressed guests at the party, she: 1) told a couple of concerned women she’ll look into a state plan that would allow the labeling of pasteurized almonds as “fresh”; 2) told four of us who raised the issue that she would sit in on the Bay Area congressional delegation’s discussions of the park’s deer-eradication program, but do little else, saying that probably nothing will change until 2009 when our Republican president and governor are out of office; 3) listened for a while to Marshall activist Donna Sheehan’s concerns about chemical pollution of the environment, and then faded out on her.

Although Donna seemed pleased to at least momentarily get the state senator’s ear, this ending to Migden’s performance became too embarrassing for me to watch. I went outside to smoke my pipe and talk with Mark Dowie of Inverness (just back from Africa) and Richard Kirschman of Dogtown (who said Save the White Deer has already lined up different influential people to champion its cause).

When the party was over, I left longing for those happy days of yore when West Marin was represented by the genteel State Senator Peter Behr. Somehow Behr managed to remain a class act while pushing major bills (e.g. his Wild and Scenic Rivers Act) through the Legislature. Alas, those days are apparently gone in Sacramento.

Stefanie Pisarczyk, CMT, and I had scheduled a massage for 2 p.m. Sunday in her office above the Old Western Saloon. The 39-year-old therapist was to spend the better part of an hour stretching muscles, particularly in my shoulders, to improve my posture.

Stefanie’s office is cozy, and its views are striking. Outside one window, a stiff wind was making fronds wave like pompons on the 50-foot-high palm behind the Grandi Building.

But before the massage began, I took a few minutes to interview her about the world of Stafanie Keys (“rock star,” she said with a laugh). In that world, Stefanie just returned from a tour of the Seattle area as the featured artist with a band called 420 Funk Mob. She also just released a bluesy CD titled Say You Will.
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Stefanie is a funky, bluesy, soulful singer/guitarist with a “ballady side” (her term). Her style of singing has often been compared with Janis Joplin’s. Indeed, the only song on the Say You Will album Stefanie didn’t write is a Janis Joplin standard, Try (Just a Little Bit Harder).

Stefanie acknowledged having been also influenced by such singers as Ricki Lee Jones, Bonnie Raitt, Aretha Franklin, and Carole King, but her main influence, she added, was her “family of musicians,” especially aunts and uncles and her brother Peter “Keys” Pisarczyk.

Peter is an accomplished keyboardist, hence his nickname “Peter Keys.” Stefanie said a backup singer in Peter’s band one day commented to her, “You must be Stefanie Keys.” Bemused by the moniker, Stephanie adopted it as her stage name.

Along with being a musician, her brother Peter is an owner of a recording studio back east, and its location beside the railroad tracks proved to be fortuitous when Stefanie was recording the hardest-driving song on the album, Freight Train.

The cut makes use of a variety of train sounds recorded just outside the studio, and what amazed her, Stefanie said, was that “the sound of the brakes and everything was in the right key.” Which happened to be E.

Stefanie told me she enjoys living in two very different worlds. In the world of Stefanie Pisarcyzk, CMT, she can be found at 415 328-2609 (or stefaniep3@comcast.net). In the world of Stefanie Keys, rock star, her new CD Say You Will can be found in Point Reyes Station at Point Reyes Books and Toby’s Feed Barn.

To listen to some of Stefanie’s music and see a schedule of her upcoming performances check http://www.myspace.com/stefaniekeys although the version of Freight Train on the site lacks the train sounds. As it happens, the album contains two versions of the song, and the version on the site is the simpler, funkier reprise.

Point Reyes Station merchants held their 10th annual Path of Lights Friday, culminating in the lighting of the town Christmas tree. The tree is on the main street between the parking lots of the Bank of Petaluma and the Palace Market.

Sponsoring the event were the West Marin Chamber of Commerce, Point Reyes Books, Rotary Club of West Marin, Point Reyes Surf Shop, and Bank of Petaluma.

Most retail merchants in Point Reyes Station took part and as always placed luminaria in front of their businesses.

For the benefit of readers elsewhere around the world, here’s how The American Heritage Dictionary defines luminaria: A “Southwestern US” custom that consists of “a votive candle set into a small… paper bag weighed with sand and placed in a row with others along a walkway…”

Playing her guitar in front of the Bank of Petaluma, singer Harmony Grisman of Inverness led caroling at the West Marin Senior Services tree-lighting ceremony.

Breezes were light enough that candles could be kept lit by the crowd gathered in front of the Point Reyes Emporium Building across the street from the carolers and the town Christmas tree.

Other events Friday evening included Santa Claus’ arriving to a yuletide gala at Toby’s Feed Barn and the annual Dance Palace Craft Fair, which continued on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, numerous merchants held a scavenger hunt and drawing.

Friday’s events encouraged West Marin residents to buy their Yuletide gifts from local craftsmen and merchants. In an advertisement in The West Marin Citizen, sponsors told residents: “Studies have shown that independent retailers provide substantial benefits to the local economy by contributing $68 of every $100 back into the community…. supporting economic and social growth.”